


Data collection

by ThatPeskyAloe



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: ? - Freeform, Aliens, Blood and Injury, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Carrying, Conversations, Gen, Haiku, Injury, Injury Recovery, Research, Slice of Life, The Raid on Digistruct Peak, This was kinda just me playing around trying to figure out how to write tannis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24843964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatPeskyAloe/pseuds/ThatPeskyAloe
Summary: Tannis would say that she saw more of Zer0 than any of the other vault hunters- they run through her gauntlet often to hone their skills and she certainly doesn't mind, given that she finds them quite fascinating. A regular run-through of the course goes awry, giving her some interesting data and somewhat allowing her to share a small bonding moment with the assassin (before getting straight back to work).
Relationships: Patricia Tannis & Zer0 (Borderlands)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Data collection

As they digistructed from the fast travel station down the hall from her and greeted her with a small wave of a four fingered hand, Tannis thought to herself that Zer0 was perhaps the vault hunter that she saw the most of. 

With all things said and done and most of the people they needed dead now riddled with a great deal of bullets, a lot of the vault hunters did their own thing- Salvador had disappeared for now, presumably to commit some more crimes against humanity. Maya often left the planet to do something about honing her siren powers, and of course Kreig followed like some kind of puppy. Ew. Gaige had gone in search of her father, though she did come back from time to time. Axton was still around Sanctuary fairly reliably and always seemed to be doing a job for someone, and Tannis would be lying if she said that she hadn't had him running errands for her from time to time as well. 

Zer0 had somewhat annoyingly proceeded differently to how she had expected.

She had thought that Zer0, who had seemed the loner type, would have dissapeared soon after all was said and done in search of something more interesting. Something that would provide them with the challenge that they so often cryptically talked about. Much to her surprise they seemed to never leave for much more than a week- the longest time had been 9.4 days thus far, and she had kept track. They always seemed to lament a lack of challenge when asked about what they had been doing, which may, now she thought more about it, provide an explanation as to why they were here to run her digistructed gauntlet once again. 

Though the gauntlet got quite a lot of use nowadays, not many of the vault hunters frequented it. A few politely declined running through it even a second time, others ran through it religiously for a few days before wearing themselves out and promptly forgetting about it. She had her fair share of crimson raiders getting use out of it at least, so thankfully it wasn't as though it was standing abandoned. But no one had gotten quite as much use from it as Zer0. 

She knew their regular biometric data off by heart at this point- and what interesting data is was too, given their alien nature. She was still working on getting them to show her what was under the suit so she could study them thoroughly- most attempts thus far had been met with resistance and some talk about privacy, decency, something like that. 

She really would like to get an x-ray at least. The bone structure alone would be interesting to study- from the way they moved and simply the way they looked it was obvious that something was different. Four fingers, hips that were obviously not formed along the same lines as humans, thin shoulders, very long legs. It would seem in general they were long and thin. She wondered if they were biologically inclined to be so slim, or if perhaps the food on Pandora didn't quite meet nutritional needs for them. Or perhaps their metabolism was a deal faster than a humans? So many possibilities with so far no way to study them. Darn. 

"Good morning, Tannis." They waved again as they approached, which was pointless seeing as she had seen the first time they did it. "Is the gauntlet in use now? Or might I go in?"

It was approaching midday, but since is was still technically morning she could overlook the greeting. A concept like morning was useless to her as she slepts whenever she needed to, circadian rhythm be damned, and that made her wonder if the alien even needed sleep. 

"It is not." She said simply. "Just begin as always- you know what to do by now."

She watched them as they went, checking over gear, if guns were loaded and so on as they walked briskly to the starting point. Were she more typical she may have made some kind of connection to them having a sort of feline grace- but comparing someone nimble to a cat was far too cliché. There was simply nothing she could conpare them too, them being the strange alien creature that they were. Nimble and swift, which told her that they were light, but then again they struck with such force that shouldn't have really been possible from such a slim frame. They were a mystery through and through; but at least they were interesting to observe in combat. 

They were breezing through the course as usual- she'd upped the difficulty for them upon entry, but it seemed that she may need to create some further challenges. Perhaps it was still to similar to the last time? The rough pattern of what appeared when was always roughly the same, so perhaps changing it up a bit could be in order. Just adding a few psychos or marauders where thay hadn't been before would hardly be a challenge, though... They were coming up on the final area quite quickly, so the options that she had were fairly limited, but adding a few of those spider tanks where there had been none previously would certainly be unexpected. A few button presses sent two in to block the path to the final arena and she watched as they sprang back, seemingly startled by the sudden appearance of them- and then a few badass marauders too, just for funsies. 

Of course the marauders were hardly a problem, as she may have suspected. Although she did spot the assassin stumbling just slightly after they took one down- fatigue perhaps, or an injury she hadn't seen happen? It wasn't as though she was watching constantly after all, reading their data and spawning enemies in at the same time took a little bit of a split on concentration. 

However quickly they dispatched the marauders, the spider tanks charged up their cannons just a bit faster. They had to leap for cover in the face of being obliterated by the two cannons and hurriedly reloaded their gun, only to have to quickly spring to their feet as one tank came around the corner and spotted them.

They backed up, shooting an SMG from the hip in heavy sprays of lead. Their biometric data was off, too; she knew it well, and it seemed that (stress hormone) levels had spiked. Not only that, but their heartrate was quite high. They backed up further, seemingly going rigid as they found their back against a wall, and Tannis wondered if maybe she had actually managed to get the stoic assassin to panic a little. That was quite rare. 

They took a moment to change weapons, the light gun not having much effect at all, and that was when the blast came that sent them sprawling. Tannis winced- that certainly looked as though it hurt. They staggered to their feet, ducking behind cover again to reappear into view with a hefty rocket launcher in hand. Two shots made short work of the first tank and they scrambled to a different cover as they reloaded, making similarly short work of the last one in the same hurried fashion.

Given the injuries sustained, it was really quite impressive that they managed. She decided to refrain from adding any spider tanks to the final stage, mostly because they wouldn't fit in the arena. They were moving a bit slower that normally- not that it effected their ability to complete the course much, but it certainly wasn't their best time. Though it wasn't as though she was keeping a score of that, it wasn't exactly a race. She was ready to spawn in the last few waves of enemies in the final arena once Zer0 got there, finger poised over the button, when things took a turn for the unexpected.

Zer0 never made it to the final arena at all. They obviously tried, but collapsed onto one knee after a few steps, instinctively curling up around where they were injured. A few moments later, she heard their voice through her ECHO.

"Tannis."

"What's this? Don't tell me you're giving up so close to the end?"

A brief pause, during which she could see them sink down further, back to a wall. 

"...Just that, I'm afraid. I can't continue like this, with these injuries."

Their voice sounded considerably strained. She doubted they would make it to the end on their own, not without assistance. She sighed. She supposed it couldn't be helped. 

"Well then. I'll cancel the simulation. A shame, but no matter. I suppose you'll need some assistance- do try not to shoot it."

Had they been running the course with others, they could have been hauled back by a teammate. But as things stood, a friendly bandit she digistructed in would have to do. She watched as Zer0 allowed themselves to be slung over the bandit's shoulder and carried out of view. It wouldn't be able to take Zer0 any further than the elevator, so she sighed and resigned herself to going to where the elevator emerged and assisting them. 

Now she wouldn't make a habit of this, and she wouldn't do this for just anyone... But Zer0 _had_ been an excellent source of interesting data, and was one of the most loyal testers gor the course. She couldn't very well just let them die so easily. 

She picked up an Anshin for them on her was past Zed's machine, and went to meet them. They we're making a shaky attempt at standing when she arrived, and she shook her head. 

"Oh, sit." She scolded. "You'll only do yourself more damage."

They let themselves sink down, perhaps reluctantly. She took a knee next to them and offered the Anshin, though when it seemed their unsteady hands were having trouble administering it she took it from their hands and did so herself. They let out a sigh of relief as flesh knitted itself back together, no longer so tense. Through the lasting rips in their suit Tannis was quite intrigued to see skin that most certainly wasn't a human hue- but most of them was still unfortunately obscured. She stood just as the other began to speak. 

"Humiliating... You caught me with my guard down. I was quite careless."

"Mm, indeed. May it be a lesson to you."

Zer0 sighed again- they clearly didn't like losing. They reached a hand up with a quiet "would you?". Tannis looked at them blankly for a moment before realising what they wanted and, with some reluctance, took it and hauled him to his feet, letting go quickly. They both walked in silence to the main area, where it seemed they would part ways for the time being. 

"Next time, I will win." They said, turning to face her for a moment. And I will be well prepared for anything, then."

"You'd better be." She said, a hand on her hip. "I won't always be so generous as to haul you back here."

Zer0 chuckled as they turned away toward the fast travel, the noise quite strange through their helmet. She frowned at not being taken completely seriously. 

"Until next time."

With that they dissapeared into blue pixels, off to get a new suit most likely. Tannis shook her head and went to return to her usual place in case someone else came by. Hopefully not- she had very interesting data of Zer0s stress responses that she would like to look over thoroughly. They were really quite a strange creature... She would understand them fully one day. 

It may just take a while. 

**Author's Note:**

> God I hope I did Tannis justice here, i wuv her,,,,,


End file.
